EO set vs contractualization – Bello

President Rodrigo Duterte will issue an executive order that will broaden the prohibition of labor contracting in a wide range of industries and enterprises across the country, Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III announced today.

In a breakfast forum in Quezon City, Bello said the President will sign the EO any time soon.

We are waiting for the meeting of the labor sector with the President anytime this week or next week. During that meeting, we are expecting the President to sign an Executive Order regarding the issue of contractualization, he told the Pandesal Forum hosted by columnist Wilson Lee Flores.

Bello added that the EO, which was drafted by labor groups, was concurred to by management groups. So, maganda ito.

In the same forum, Bello said the labor department is targeting to regularize at least 300,000 contractual workers this year.

To attain this target and to fast track the regularization of workers, he added, I have instructed our Undersecretary for Labor Relations to order all our regional offices to require all business establishments throughout the country to submit a list of their employees and the nature of their employment. At the same time, they must submit a program of regularization.

Through our intensified labor inspections and voluntary regularization of collaborating establishments, we are expecting more workers to enjoy stable employment status. As President Duterte has committed, we are pursuing the campaign to stop this pernicious practice with more vigor, he said.

At present, there are 541 Labor Laws Compliance Officers (LLCOs) who conduct assessment and inspection of around 937,554 small, medium and big business establishments in the country. On top of that are 55 social partners comprised of 45 labor groups, five employers’ groups, and five other organizations who were trained on Labor Laws and Social Legislation.